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Tuesday, February 7, 2017

I'm not winning Mother of the Year. That's all I can say.

Here's the background: Drew had a cough all week and was kind of feeling yucky. Judah got a cough the day of he trip to the dentist and was actually trying hard not to cough all over the dentist. By that evening he was coughing a ton in fits. I had been giving Benedryl to Drew at night. I had just taken Brian to the airport earlier in the evening.

And that's where our Friday evening started. At bedtime I gave Judah some Motrin and some Benedryl. Then I put him to bed because he was saying he was so tired. I took Drew back down to our bathroom to give him the same medicines and I reached for the cotton candy pink colored Benedryl and realized that it said Nasal Decongestant Psuedoephedrine (also cotton candy pink in color) on it and the Benedryl bottle was sitting pretty and untouched right next to it. I gave Drew the right medicines and then tucked him in. Then I came back to Google what the dosage and such for the other medicine would be for Judah. I didn't look closely at the bottle when I gave it to him for the dose because I have his dosage of Benedryl memorized because of his allergies.

After a lot of Googling, I found that I had given him twice what he should have had of a medicine that is not recommended for children under four anyway because "Risk of dosage error resulting in high blood pressure."

Enter panic. I messaged two doctors that we know asking what I should do. I messaged Brian and asked his opinion too. I went into Judah's room and tried to take his heart rate while he was sleeping, but it was going so fast that I was having trouble counting fast enough. I estimated 130 (normal for his age is 80-120). In the end I decided to go have him monitored at the ER in case his heart rate and/or blood pressure went too high. I threw him in the van and hastily gave Hannah directions to sleep in my bed so she could hear the boys if there was a problem. I was so thankful that I didn't have to wake up everyone and bring them. It was 8:30pm when I pulled out with a cute, sleepy pajama'd boy. We live about 30 minutes from the hospital.

The ER waiting room was completely empty. They got him into Triage pretty quickly. His heart rate was 178. His blood pressure was 107/58. The triage nurse called poison control and asked what they recommend. They told her the toxic dose was 240mg. I had given him 30mg, which was double his dosage for weight (15mg.) I just didn't believe them that the toxic dose was so high. (Our doctor friend told us the adult toxic dose was 240mg.) The nurses and doctors then were not at all concerned about the medicine amount he'd received. However, he had been coughing a lot and the nurse said we should have him seen for the cough while we were there. She also was impressed that such a little guy covered his mouth so well. (I am too since my 8 year old doesn't cover his coughs half the time.) I would never have brought him to the ER for his cough. He'd just started coughing that day and his coughs always sounded like that.

The doctor reiterated that he was not worried about the medicine and his heart rate, no matter what I said. He was acting very patronizing. I was messaging a friend of mine during this process and I messaged that the doctor was being patronizing. A few minutes later I think the doctor saw it when I laid my phone down to help Judah. I usually automatically turn it off, but I must have forgotten. Oh well, maybe he'll work on his bedside manner in the future. He mentioned he had six kids perhaps thinking it gives him more clout, obviously not knowing that I did too. Turns out we have kids roughly the same age.

Anyway, the next thing he says is that Judah is wheezing and needs a breathing treatment and a steroid. I questioned the wisdom in that since it would only make his heart rate go higher. He insisted that he needed to do it to help him breath, that his heart was strong, and that they'd watch him. In the end his heart rate would go down because it wouldn't have to work so hard to compensate for his lungs. He said Judah has reactive airway disease, AKA asthma which isn't surprising. Like I said, he gets a cough and it immediately goes to the wheezing cough since he was very young and got Pneumonia when he had coughed two times before he went to sleep that night and woke up sounding like he was dying. They sent us home with a spacer and an inhaler and some more steroids, and they made an appointment with the pediatrician to see him in the morning at 9am on a Saturday.

Judah thought the nebulizer sounded scary. He thought it sounded like a dinosaur which have been starring in his dreams/nightmares of late. So I sang songs to him to block out the sound and get him to focus on my voice instead of the sound of the mask. The nebulizer and steroid did help him breathe a lot better. His coughing fits stopped. He'd been a real trooper up until the nebulizer came off. Then every other second he was asking to go home. He still didn't cry or anything, but he was definitely ready for his bed and to be done with the middle of the night party at the hospital.

We got home at 12:15am ish and I put him in bed, but he wasn't tired he said so he looked at books a while. I was exhausted so I went to bed too feeling like a big loser for giving my little guy the wrong medicines, but wondering if it was for the best in the end since he could breathe now.

First thing in the morning I packed up my three little sick kids to take them all the way back to the hospital to see the pediatrician. I wanted him to listen to all of them since Drew'd been coughing all week and Bob woke up sounding very bad with a barky cough. He said Drew had a slight wheeze and I could use the inhaler if he had coughing fits for him as well. He said Bob sounded like he had the croup.

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Where did "A Pew All Our Own" come from?

My husband and I were sitting in church before Mass shortly after we were confirmed into the Catholic Church. Both of our gazes drifted to a pew close by where a family filled up the whole pew. Granted it was one of the shorter pews, not a full length one. I can't remember who said it to whom, but one of us said, "I hope we fill up a pew with our family one day." We agreed it would be wonderful. And so that is what we're hoping for...a pew all our own.

Living the Good Life

At a Castle in Nurnberg, Germany

Love of my life

People think they have to find their soulmate to have a good marriage. You get married, and after 20 years of loving, bearing and raising children, meeting challenges- then you'll have "created" your soulmate. -Diane Sollee